HUBLI: The National Committee for Protection of Natural Resources (NCPNR), Dharwad, and other organisations have appealed to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to ask the Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF) to drop the controversial move of making "degraded" forest lands available to industries for captive plantation and other purposes.

Addressing presspersons here on Sunday, S.R. Hiremath, president of NCPNR, and A.S. Salanki of Jan Vikas Andolan (JVA) said that the move was against the National Forest Policy (1988) and the Forest Conservation Act (1980).

They said the move would adversely affect lakhs of rural poor, including tribal communities, who were dependent on forests and other common lands for fodder, fuel and other forest produce required for their survival.

Biodiversity

Mr. Hiremath said the entry of private sector would usurp the market of farmers and reverse the genuine initiative of farmers to raise trees on their own lands for industrial and commercial needs. The move would adversely affect the biodiversity and environment, he contended. The Ministry should instead take steps towards meaningful participation of local communities for development of degraded lands and protection of forests by building on the earlier policy and programme initiatives. There was an urgent need to move towards community forest management from the present joint forest management, he said.

Awareness campaigns

Along with NCPNR, Dharwad, NCPNR, Kochi, Jan Vikas Andolan units of Dharwad and Pune, Rights and Resource of Chandigarh and other organisations have submitted an appeal in this regard to the Prime Minister, Mr. Hiremath said.

He said the organisations would also start awareness campaigns to sensitise people on the issue.

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